Formation trend analysis and gender inclusion in community forests of Nepal

Abstract

The community forests of Nepal are a showcase of participatory forest management models to the global communities. However, the scenario of formation trend and their future formation potential is unknown. This paper presents 40 years of community forests (CF) formation trend in Nepal and discusses its potential formation scenario. The researchers have used updated data (mid-July, 2020) for trend analysis using Mann-Kendall and Sen's slope coefficient test. The policy provision of women participation and their actual involvement in the executive committee (EC) of community forests users' group (CFUG) has also been compared. The analysis showed 22,519 CF with an area of 2,312,545 hectares of national forests being managed by 3,088,259 households (HH). This constitutes 15.67% of the total land area, 34.98% of total forested area, 56.90% of total HH, and 62.68% of the total population of Nepal being involved in CF. Though the formation trend of CF and their respective area, HH involvement, EC members, and participation of women in EC was in increasing trend in the late 1990s to early 2000s, these variables are now decreasing. Although not statistically significant (p>0.05), the overall annual growth shows a negative trend, indicating the CF formation near the saturation point. Result reveals efforts and time to be invested in the management of CF rather than investing in a new formation. Moreover, results evident that CF ensures and obtains more than 50% women involvement both in policy and practice in the decision-making process for participatory common resource management in Nepal. Results would be a reference to policy guidance related to sustainable CF management and gender-inclusive participatory common resource management. This, again, would be a good example of a gender-inclusive natural resource management model to the other sectors in Nepal and to the global community.